The
Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof.
Itse Sagay (SAN), and prominent lawyer, Femi Falana have called on the
President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to arrest immediately the
wanted ex-chairman of the defunct Presidential Task Force on Pension
Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, who has returned to Nigeria.
Maina,
who fled the country in 2015 after being indicted for allegedly
perpetrating fraud to the tune of N2bn, returned to the country and was
posted to the Ministry of Interior based on the recommendation of the
Head of Service and was given double promotion.
But on Sunday
evening, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission spokesman, Mr.
Wilson Uwujaren, maintained that Maina was still wanted.
When asked if Maina would be arrested by the commission, the EFCC spokesman refused to speak further.
The EFCC on its website, www.efccnigeria.org, retained a picture of Maina, asking members of the public to help fish him out.
The
EFCC wrote, “The public is hereby notified that Abdulrasheed Abdullahi
Maina, former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, whose photograph
appears above, is wanted by the EFCC for offences bordering on
procurement fraud and obtaining by false pretences.
“Dark-complexioned
Maina is allegedly complicit in the over N2bn pensions biometric scam
in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation. He remains
at large after charges were filed against his accomplices.
“Anybody
with useful information as to his whereabouts should contact the
commission in its Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe, Port Harcourt or Abuja
offices.”
Speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, Sagay said
Maina’s case should not be treated with kid gloves based on the gravity
of the offence he allegedly committed.
The PACAC chairman
described pension scam as one of the worst forms of fraud known to
mankind and anyone accused of such should not be handled with kid
gloves.
Sagay said, “This man was accused of embezzling billions
of naira meant for pensioners who had spent all their lives serving this
country. One man took the money they should rely on in their declining
years, subjecting them to misery and hopelessness.
“This is a
moral and criminal issue. So, to hear that the man is in the country and
somebody employed him means he is not the only criminal in the system.
It means there is an accessory.
“Whoever was involved in
employing him and then giving him promotion is an accessory after the
fact to the crimes committed by this man if it is established that he is
culpable. I don’t see why he escaped if he was not guilty.”
He
added, “The EFCC should not just say they are aware; they should take
action. The EFCC should now arrest him, interrogate him and if they can
establish a case, prosecute him. They should also investigate all those
involved in the reabsorbing and promotion of this man.
“If it
established that they brought him back into the civil service despite
knowledge of the man’s alleged crimes, they are also accessories after
the fact and should also be arrested and prosecuted.”
In his
reaction, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, mocked the President
Muhammadu Buhari administration for reabsorbing Maina.
Fayose
said on his official Twitter handle, “Someone accused of stealing
billions of pension fund was returned to the Federal Government civil
service and you still think Buhari is fighting corruption?”
Similarly,
human rights lawyer, Falana urged the EFCC to immediately charge Maina
with the alleged N100bn pension fraud for which he was declared wanted
for years.
He equally called for the immediate prosecution of the
Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, and the Head of Service of
the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, for allegedly shielding the
suspect from prosecution.
Falana, in a text message to our
correspondent on Sunday, also urged President Buhari to sanction those
involved in Maina’s recall and promotion in their bid to sabotage the
administration’s anti-corruption war.
He said, “Mr. Maina was
declared wanted by the EFCC because of his indictment in a pension scam.
Now that he has been located, the EFCC has a duty to charge him without
any further delay.
“The Head of Service and interior minister
who shielded him from prosecution ought to be charged with aiding and
abetting the felon.
“Those who recalled and promoted the fugitive
ought to be sanctioned by President Buhari to serve as a deterrent to
others who may wish to sabotage the war against corruption.”
Also
reacting to the development, Mr.Yusuf Ali (SAN), said the re-absorption
of Maina into the service, if true, was a big blow to the
anti-corruption efforts of the Federal Government.
He said, “We
don’t have all the facts at the moment. I don’t want to believe that the
re-absorption of the man into the civil service was true without him
being discharged and acquitted by the court. If that was the case, then
it will be a big blow to the anti-corruption effort of the government.
When we have all the facts, we can make more definitive comments.
Speaking
in a similar vein, a retired Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav,
said Maina’s reinstatement into the civil service made a mockery of the
anti-corruption posture of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration.
He said, “The war against corruption is not true.
This man ran away after he was accused of embezzling pension fund;
instead of handing him over to the EFCC, he was re-absorbed and
promoted. Why? This is very bad. We expect that Buhari with his
reputation as a man of high honesty and integrity not to condone this
kind of thing. If such a man can condone such a thing, I don’t know
where this country is going.
“Retired police officers are owed 32
months of pension arrears, the money this man (Maina) is being accused
to have stolen is part of the money required to pay these arrears.
“Up
till now, they have not been paid and this man came back after he ran
away, has been taken back and promoted. This is a mockery of this
anti-corruption fight.”
When contacted on the telephone on
Sunday, the Assistant Director (Press), Office of the Head of Service of
the Federation, Mohammed Manga, asked our correspondent if Maina had
ever been dismissed from office to warrant reports that he was
reinstated.
Manga said, “Before we begin to talk of
reinstatement, was Maina dismissed from service at a point? In every
organisation, there are rules and regulations. The civil service is
generally governed by the civil service rules.
“If you say he was
dismissed from service, who dismissed him? If EFCC is looking for him,
what did he say? What was the end of its investigation?
“Let us find out if he was dismissed? Who dismissed him? Who reinstated him and why?”
He was posted to my ministry by HOS
–Internal Affairs Minister
The
Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.), has
absolved himself from complicity in the reinstatement and posting of the
former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms,
Abdulrasheed Maina, to the ministry.
He said Maina, who was
declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was
posted to his ministry by the Head of Service a few days ago.
Dambazau,
in a statement signed by his press secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, in
Abuja on Sunday, said Maina was deployed to the interior ministry in
acting capacity to fill a vacancy following the retirement of the
director in charge of the human resources department.
The
statement read, “The ex-chairman of the Presidential Task Force Team on
Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, was posted a few days ago to the
Ministry of Interior by the Office of the Head of Service on an acting
capacity to fill a vacancy following the retirement of the director
heading the human resources department in the ministry.”
It
added, “For the avoidance of doubt, issues relating to discipline,
employment, re-engagement, posting, promotion and retirement of federal
civil servants are the responsibility of the Federal Civil Service
Commission and the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, of
which no minister exercises such powers as erroneously expressed.”
The
minister said that Maina was probably posted to the interior ministry
because that was his last posting before he was declared wanted by the
anti-graft commission for the multi-billion naira pension fund scam.
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